The telecommunications sector in Bahrain has witnessed significant developments in the past two decades, although it is necessary to provide a backdrop of its history prior to that. In 1981, Bahrain’s first telecommunications company, Batelco, was founded. It enjoyed its monopoly in the sector until 2003 when the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (established by Bahrain Legislative Decree No. 48/2002 Promulgating the Telecommunications Law ) granted MTC Vodafone (today operating as Zain) a license to operate in the Kingdom. Today, three major telecommunications operators exist, namely, Batelco, Zain and Stc (a subsidiary of the Saudi Stc Group).

Over the past two decades, four laws and regulations have been enacted to safeguard fair competition, three of which are targeted at telecom service providers. These are:

• Bahrain Legislative Decree No. 48/2002 Promulgating the Telecommunications Law;

• Bahrain Telecommunications Regulatory Authority Decision No. 17/2017 on the Issuance of the Regulations for the Protection of Telecom Service Consumers;

• Bahrain Law No. 31/2018 on the Issuance of the Competition Promotion and Protection; and

• Bahrain Decision No. 72/2019 by the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism Regarding Economic Concentration Transactions.